- Santina Croniser
- Canadian whiskies, awaiting tasting
Canada has a reputation for producing light, smooth whiskies without much whisky flavor—which makes them popular among people who don’t particularly like whisky, and anathema to those who do. (Unlike the U.S., Canada, Scotland, and Japan spell “whisky” without the e.) That reputation isn’t entirely undeserved; for many years, the Canadian whiskies that were being exported to the U.S. were mostly along the lines of Seagram’s Seven, Canadian Club, and Canadian Mist—which are generally pretty tasteless—earning Canadian whisky the nickname “brown vodka.”
The last two whiskies we tasted were both experiments of Livermore’s that aren’t available commercially, which is too bad because they’re phenomenal. A 30-year rye smelled like green apple and had tons of bright fruit flavor—apple and peach—with some boozy spice. We finished with “Don’s PhD,” so named because Livermore holds a PhD in brewing and distilling from Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University that, he joked, isn’t entirely necessary for a master blender (I don’t have a lot of notes for that one, but I do remember it being good).
- Julia Thiel
Stranahan’s Snowflake: Stranahan’s whiskey, aged for three to four years in new oak barrels and finished in a combination of oloroso sherry casks, cognac casks, and cherry wine barrels. I already liked the regular version of Stranahan’s, but this is a serious step up.
Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask: I wrote about the Taiwanese distillery Kavalan after last year’s WhiskyFest, but I was equally taken by their whiskies this year—particularly by this rich, spicy single malt aged in oloroso sherry casks, which has lots of dark, dried-fruit flavor.
